Travelers from the Sand [Private/Current]

[Night]

Through the forests in the far southeast of Hi no Kuni traveled a squad of warriors from the Land of Wind. Three of them wore brown, wooden masks decorated with purple paint; an hourglass carved into the forehead of each. The three wore black, knee-length cloaks with hoods that were drawn up and draped over their heads. They formed a triangle around the fourth, who was clearly their leader. The fourth was garbed identically, save for the fact that his cloak was white instead.

They travelled northeast. The warrior directly behind the leader was a shinobi skilled in Fūton and Jiton ninjutsu, whose clan had developed a special fighting technique called "Iron Sand." The one ahead of the leader to his left-hand side was a strong Katon ninjutsu user and master of another clan's cloth binding techniques. Finally, in front to the right-hand side of the leader was a third shinobi that was a master of Sunagakure's famous ninja puppetry techniques.

The leader, of course, was Yakan, sent directly by the Wind Daimyō.

The formation broke out of the forest and arrived upon a beach, looking out at the swirling waters of Uzu no Kuni.

"We're close," Yakan announced to them, "That's it up ahead; we're here."

As they already knew to do, the three Jōnin retreated backward slightly, prepared to cover their leader should he need it, but making sure they remained concealed.

Yakan stood upon the shore, debating what his next move would be.

[Night]

Yakan knew that the information about the precise location of this elusive beast could be as much as a week old by now, and that he wan't quite guaranteed to be in the right area, but he had a gut feeling... Something in the atmosphere told him the creature was still here. The reports of the previous encounter indicated that it hid under the waves, where the tides were normally too strong to be traversed.

Yakan debated how he might entice the creature to come out. However, he didn't like the idea of doing anything flashy... Maybe Yakan could just go to the creature instead? He could use Suiton ninjutsu to create a bubble around himself and start walking around on the sea floor, but if the beast wasn't in the area that could end up draining more of Yakan's chakra than he was willing to sacrifice. Yakan thought of the only thing that would allow the same examination but cost him less.

Yakan closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He inhaled again, and as he exhaled his whole body turned black, as if he were a silhouette or a living shadow. This was the Iburi clan's power. Yakan had converted his entire body into smoke, and thus, he relaxed his shape, becoming an amorphous cloud. As this was more natural for Yakan and he was more skilled, this required far less chakra of him than moving the water out of the way, and it removed his need to breathe under the water.

In this form Yakan could freely control his mass, density, and volume. As such, he increased his volume and mass proportionately to retain his density but double the size of his cloud form. Once larger, he moved himself out above the water, traveling over the whirlpools and seeing if he could detect any irregular chakra. Yakan was not exceptionally skilled as a sensor, but he hoped this creature he sought might have enough chakra to be noticeable nonetheless.

Indeed, as Yakan moved closer and closer to one of the largest whirlpools, he felt something unusual. Wishing to investigate, he now submerged himself. In his smoke transformation Yakan could control whether he physically interacted with anything touching him, and of course, not wanting to interact with the water, what Yakan was doing was quite similar to swimming... Except as a cloud of smoke.

As he submerged, this produce made Yakan appear something like a sentient cloud of ink mobilizing itself through water. An unusual sight, except maybe to any local cephalopods. The ushi-oni that Yakan sought might even find the ink-like appearance interesting. Sure enough, the place where Yakan descended was less than ten meters from the Hachibi...

[Renkai]

Hidden deep beneath the depths of the gulf known as the Land of Whirlpools, Gyūki had tucked himself away, enjoying the solitude and rushing currents that surrounded him. Not much was to be seen in the murky water, with the constantly shifting water, sediment littered the entire body of water. Some clarity was available, but it wasn't much, though not quite impossible to see through. The tailed beast had become quite accustomed to his limited vision, and did indeed spot what appeared to be some sort of ink creature navigating toward him. "Interesting," he thought to himself as he strained his eyes to get a better look at whatever it was. His tentacles swirled behind him, gradually propelling him forward, closing the gap between himself and the object that had garnered his attention.

As the same with most creatures, this thing had a source of energy which Gyūki could detect, however it was different than that of any animal he had ever encountered in his lifetime. This was more akin to that of a man, but how could it be? This was clearly not a person, or so the curious tailed beast thought.

[Night]

Sensing that great chakra behemoth that approached him, Yakan halted his movement through the water. He used his smoke form to gather some oxygen from the water, essentially taking a breath, to hold, and formed his head, sticking out at the front of the cloud. Beneath this, proportionately, he also reformed both of his arms.

Though it was difficult to see with the sediment kicked up, Yakan could obviously see that ushi-oni's massive form before him. He was in awe, but he must continue. It was time to see how sentient and reasonable the creature was. Though he was only a face, two arms, and a cloud of inky smoke, Yakan hoped he could communicate with the beast. The first thing was to get on speaking terms.

Needing to hold his breath now that he had reformed his mouth and nose, Yakan simpled smiled and waved at the beast before making a gesture, up to the surface, suggesting that they move there to speak. Yakan, of course, had no idea how the creature would react to any of this... It seemed reasonable to assume that the Hachibi had likely not encountered much in the way of such activity previously.